Government Cheese of a Different Kind

So many of you kept wanting us to talk about Sarah Palin. Sorry, but I have tuned her out. If I want to hear an ass talk I can just ask Harold to pass gas. And speaking of gas, several of you asked about the Auto Industry Bailout. At first we thought “How Boring” but then Harold showed me his credit card bill from Exxon and that got us going…

FROM HELEN:
So the oil companies are once again boasting record profits and yet the auto makers are asking for some government cheese. Does anyone else see the irony here? So I’ve got a little trickle down theory of my own. As long as Detroit continues to make cars for the Gas-Capades let the oil companies bail them out. It’s a “robbing Peter to pay Paul” kind of thing except in this case Peter and Paul seem to be riding the short bus… and it’s not to save on gas.

Is anyone else as pissed about all of this as I am? Eight years ago – 8 YEARS AGO – a brilliant politician who was asking for your vote to become President said this: “We can have a next-stage prosperity where you don’t have to build your lives around a fuel source that is distant, uncertain and easily manipulated. We will demand and develop new technologies to free ourselves from gas-tank price-gouging, and we will sell those technologies to the world. We’ll build a new generation of fuel-efficient vehicles — and then make it easy for families to afford them.“ And that politician, Al Gore, received the majority of votes in the nation and then the Supreme Court told the nation to sit down and shut up.

OK. Now I am all worked up again. Republicans – each and every last one of you – need to reach for the nearest gas pump and then promptly stick it so far up your ass that only Sarah Palin’s “Pipeline From Jesus” can find it. How could you do this to us? An idiot. You put an idiot in charge of things and sat by for EIGHT years while the nation and the world fell apart. And if that wasn’t enough, 58 million of you wanted to replace Laurel with Hardy as the next president. Sweet Jesus if I could jump through this computer screen and slap the crap out of 58 million of you I would.

Everyday is precious. EVERYDAY. And we just pissed away 2,920.

Never again.

FROM MARGARET:Well, now Helen….I do see your point but please leave my Lincoln Town Car out of this. I love my big old town car. It makes me feel safe to have all that metal around me. Just the other day, I took a little ride in my nephew’s half gas half electricity “car”. I promise you I thought I was going to die. Is that really the future? If so, I pass, thank you very much. You can have the Clown car, I’ll keep my Town car. That’s all I have to say about that.

And there you go again about the Republicans. The damage is done, dear. Time to point that shot gun of yours at something new. There is plenty out there to aim at and plenty to pull the trigger over too. Don’t get me wrong, I’m just as upset about things as you are. My anger, however, is more local than global. Hasn’t that always been the way with us? Right now I am so angry at the manager of our grocery store. He moves things. I have been going down the same aisle for YEARS to get whatever it is that I am running in there to get and now, nothing. Gone. He moved it. And, no, Helen, I’m not just forgetting where things are. He has moved them around. Makes me so gosh darn mad.

Now, I also know what you are thinking, Helen, but this IS important to me. We can’t ALL keep up with the goings-on of our government and all things like that. I’ll leave that to you, dear. But what about the little problems that face most people everyday? I think these should be addressed as well. Even though I think we could probably fill this blog web page with pages and pages, but don’t worry, I won’t. Oh, and one last thing then I’m done. Just so that you all know. Helen can cuss the shine right off a nun’s shoulder. I can’t. Never have. Although I must admit, one of you commenters used the term “Ass Hat” the other day. Made me laugh so. I kind of like it. Not sure how to use it, but I do think there are times when such a term would do nicely. In fact, there is a certain Grocery Manager I have in mind. Thanks for that.

That’s it. I’m done.

Well thanks for stopping by everyone. We’re having fun and hope you are too. Come back soon. We mean it. Really.

[…] Government Cheese of a Different Kind « Margaret and Helen So the oil companies are once again boasting record profits and yet the auto makers are asking for some government cheese. Does anyone else see the irony here? So I’ve got a little trickle down theory of my own. As long as Detroit continues to make cars for the Gas-Capades let the oil companies bail them out. It’s a “robbing Peter to pay Paul” kind of thing except in this case Peter and Paul seem to be riding the short bus… and it’s not to save on gas. […]

Pat, I forgo the chunky ice cream, preferring black raspberry or classic vanilla myself. Even in the last decade or two I’ve noticed the change in marketing and shopping. It’s gotten absolutely ridiculous. Thanks Hannaford, I’ll stick to my local shoppes and farmers markets. TV, magazines, and the like may brain wash a lot of the suckers- er population- but I’ve got a foil helmet…and just common sense (which isn’t so common anymore).

[…] Irascible Helen and Margaret have a few words to say about bailing out Detroit. So the oil companies are once again boasting record profits and yet the auto makers are asking for some government cheese. Does anyone else see the irony here? So I’ve got a little trickle down theory of my own. As long as Detroit continues to make cars for the Gas-Capades let the oil companies bail them out. It’s a “robbing Peter to pay Paul” kind of thing except in this case Peter and Paul seem to be riding the short bus… and it’s not to save on gas. […]

Leanderthal……these 2 dear ladies are peers of mine, ( kinda long in the tooth)
No contemporary students, could possibly write with their perspective of age, experience and wisdom! I’ve met some pretty bright youngsters, but their imagination just wouldn’t stretch this far, given that society has COMPLETELY CHANGED in my 7 decades! And I went back to college with them 10 years ago………thanks to SS income I am defaulting on my student loans. ( The lack of imagination, to hire a mature female computer geek, was notable, even if I did teach my Grandchildren and earned the
title “techy Grammy”.)
Grocery stores: where I first noticed something seriously wrong with society about 15 years ago. 80% of my food disappeared from the shelves in favor of things like “blue” energy drinks! Ice cream; used to be smooth and cool and refreshing, and melted in our mouth! Now all the flavors seem to have chunks and bits, cookies, M&Ms, pieces of waffle cones…….. Eating ice cream is as much work as chewing a salad nowadays.
It’s all planned out by the marketing geniuses to appeal to the dumbest among us, who believe everything they see on Tee Vee! They HAVE TO HAVE IT, even at 15% on their credit card.
They change the shape of the containers so you won’t notice that it contains 1 oz less AND raise the price! Yes Hannaford Corp. take up more of my time than the Acme, Food Fair, Pantry Pride used to ……….
I’m grateful I don’t have to go to workj for a Corporation every day!

Helen, I totally agree with you. The fact that the oil companies are raking in more money than any company has ever made in the history of civilization while everyone else is screwed, including the people who helped the oil companies, is completely ridiculous.

The reality which the current mode of national, oil, auto discourse reflects is one of pathological denial. You can take me out and shoot me behind the collective tool shed, but what’s obvious is that the problem is a lifestyle of over-consumption and the inherited structures of entitlement that go with it. Take it from a mechanic, hybrids are just a thing of novelty to entertain a pseudo-environmental continuation of the same problem, the same egomaniacal, autocentric, American culture. We’re already well into the century of oil wars, and yet few people have any fundamental perception between what they pump into the tank and the hundreds of social, political, and environmental consequences that follow from that single act. “Gas” is just the invisible quantity that ticks away on the digital face of the pump, allowing us to pursue our obscure future for just a little while longer, while foregoing any possible thought to the contrary and co-opting the naysayers as bicycle riding fags (a term I prefer not to use, except having been called it many times by Mr. Ford Explosion Compensator 5000). So I guess what I’m saying is car/road culture is where America goes to die. My best wishes to the auto-workers, but the industry is a 20th century dinosaur and a symbol of willful ignorance and mismanagement. Bankruptcy for the Big Three will be the best thing to exorcise the country of archaic sensibilities. Maybe. Big maybe.

[…] Helen rants about the Big Three asking for government assistance: So the oil companies are once again boasting record profits and yet the auto makers are asking for some government cheese. Does anyone else see the irony here? So I’ve got a little trickle down theory of my own. As long as Detroit continues to make cars for the Gas-Capades let the oil companies bail them out. It’s a “robbing Peter to pay Paul” kind of thing except in this case Peter and Paul seem to be riding the short bus… and it’s not to save on gas. […]

Assuming you’re reading this… I know you said you’re tired of talking about Caribou Barbie, but I wanted to share a link to a recent column by Dick Cavett, lamenting the butchery of the English language (i.e. hers). Enjoy –

I think we should ignore Abuck and his ilk, ’cause otherwise, we just encourage them. Like Helen said ‘for heaven’s sake, don’t feed them!’ Look at Palin – the media encourages her, so the rest of us still have to hear about her. She’s so lame.

Shades of Herbert Hoover! I was for the $700 billion “bail out” because I was thinking FDR. How could I have been so stupid. If anyone read Paulson’s op-ed in the NYTimes, did you weep like me. So he think’s everythings ok, huh. Well all of us who are watching our savings get wiped, all of us who are losing our jobs don’t think so.

I’m with Helen and Mit Romney. The big 3 are too rotten to the core to save.

Now Margaret, I just have to ask. Would you have felt safer in your nephew’s doodle bug if everyone were driving something that size? I gave my itybity up after the 3rd time I nearly died in it when some bozoo driving his humvee or equivalent hit me from behind going 70mph while I was stopped in traffic on the highway. Said he, not my fault, I was looking at the hubcaps in the median!!! Ha!Ha! And his insurance company tried to tell me it was my fault for driving something so small!!!hahahaha! If everyone was driving a clamshell running on 3 AAA batteries, we’d all be safer. Ooops! Margaret! that wasn’t you in your Town Car that just ran me over, was it?

Would they give me money to pay my bills if I went to Washington, DC and begged? I can’t afford to fly, and I don’t think my beater Caravan will get me there. Can’t afford the gas either. Maybe I will hoof it to DC. I could carry a sign that said “Dodge helped me get to where I am today – walking”

Those bozos flew in to DC on private jets to beg for money. I work as an assistant to a CEO. A private flight is at least 15K – typically more. Even a first class ticket is more reasonable – maybe $1500. Coach is $300. I just spent 1/2 an hour trying to save $100 on a business flight for myself, because money is tight here as it is everywhere. I say we let the free market fix the auto industry. Toyota, Honda and other foreign makers build cars here, great cars, that give Americans jobs, and they don’t need handouts. Let Ford, GM, and Chrysler figure this out themselves. I’m running short on cash and a bit heavier in debt than I’d like. Do I qualify for a government handout? NO.

Judy in CA “But on thinking about it a little more, it seems to me that if that happened, the auto makers would be in the pockets of the oil companies and would only continue to produce vehicles that would guzzle even more gasoline in order for the oil companies to continue making more and more money.”

They are there now – the only difference then would be it would be acknowledged. Better than chicken little aka the sky is falling crying wolf ad nauseum. The problem with bailing them out is they are not going to change they are going to continue business as usual which is why they are in the mess they are in.

Thanks for the suggestions on Oil and Auto makers. Too bad it will never happen. Greed will prevail.
Another point of interest Sen. McCain had a wonderful solution to our healthcare problems. Everyone take your pittance and try and strike a deal with the insurance companies. Talk about giving the fox the rule of the hen house!! So now I’m hearing doctors complaining that insurance companies aren’t paying them for services rendered or have deferred payment till just after infinity. What an interesting turn. Now if you think this is interesting just wait till we see the rest of the insurance industry lined up behind the auto makers to get their government hand outs. All under the guise that they can’t pay for coverage because their steady stream of revenue from companies is starting to dwindle. Bonuses are still getting paid. Remember no matter how many Christmas cards or birthday cards Banks and Insurance companies send you, they are in business for one reason only and that is to make money, lots of it.

On first reading someone’s suggestion of the oil companies bailing out the auto manufacturers, I thought it sounded like a great idea. But on thinking about it a little more, it seems to me that if that happened, the auto makers would be in the pockets of the oil companies and would only continue to produce vehicles that would guzzle even more gasoline in order for the oil companies to continue making more and more money.

I gave Ford two chances. The first one crumpled under impact of 15mph on an icy road, but the airbags worked. The second car, I had to get rid of after 5 years because the bottom was literally rusting out. Yes, the winters are rough, but even so cars usually have a longer life span than that. So now I’m back to Japanese cars, which is what I grew up with when my family lived in Japan.

Troutay, I agree. If the big car companies would stop pissing their cash away, they probably wouldn’t be in such a mess.

Skyewriter–If you look hard enough on the internet, you will find researchers that support both sides of the global warming fiasco. I could cut & paste 3 quick references if I didn’t think that you were smart enough to find them yourself. I leave it at this…there are more polar bears and thicker ice levels now than 5 years ago. Do I want the scientists to be wrong? Well, no…I just believe the ones that say that there is no global warming threat. Who would profit? If Government bails out the auto industry, they would/could profit if they put regulations on them and get more involved with the behind the scenes operations. The people that are developing/selling the new mandatory mercury loaded light bulbs should profit. That’s my take at least. I don’t think that Big Oil will profit, but I could be wrong?

Lynne A–In no way am I a bad loser. I believe what I believe and I realize that the role of President shifts from Republican to Democrat every few elections. Obama is just so far left of my beliefs that I have a hard time trying to listen to people talk about how great he is. Again, if he proves me wrong I’ll eat crow. I think that his campaign was full of shit and the false promise of lowering taxes for 95% of Americans helped get him elected. Lowering/cutting taxes is what conservatives believe in…not liberals.

-People said that “Obama wants to bring people together” and I laugh at those chuckle heads! Liberals like Obama want to grow government, limit/control our freedoms, and rewrite the core values that our country was founded on!

-Pelosi may be bipolar…there is something seriously wrong with her.

-Troutay–I want the election to be done by the book as well, but it seems like we have gone away from that already. When votes found days later in the trunk of a car are validated, we have issues.

Joy–You said, “Democrats have had to clean up the messes of every Republican President”. Are you kidding me? Clinton walked into one of the best situations EVER and Reagan had to clean up the huge mess that Carter left behind! Carter, by far, is the worst President that we’ve ever had! Please stop making/formulating excuses for Obama already…he’s not even in office yet!

-Maybe Toyota could buy out our struggling auto industry? What’s the worst that could happen if they were allowed to fail? Is there a chance that new ownership could take over and maybe run them better?

-People that spit on cars and in peoples faces are the ones that vote for Obama…it’s been clearly stated on here. I doubt that you would have the balls or are radical enough to actually spit in my face, “I can see Russia from my house”…maybe you are though?

-W has not been conservative during his 2 terms as President. His spending practices have been criticized by many in his own party…that’s why many conservatives like myself were disappointed by the McCain nomination…he would have been my 6th choice!

-E85 is a horrible idea…it runs at a huge loss…it is very inefficient to produce.

Margaret & Helen…I enjoy your blog, but not for the same reason as 99.9% of the others do…they make me laugh…you guys don’t!

Interesting:
NY Times has reported that the CEO’s of GM, Ford, & Chrysler flew to DC (to beg for a bailout),
on luxurious private jets. I hear also, that GM has 8 of these things!
And they want me to feel sorry for them?
Hell no!

We all understand how protective you feel about M & H, as this indeed is a rare blog.

But you have to realize that SOMEBODY had to be the slow kid in the class. It’s obvious Charles has done very little reading beyond perhaps the occasional Guns ‘n Ammo magazine and has a very limited and tenuous grasp of economics. One could assume that his sources of information are not exactly journals from Ivy League institutions.

So let’s give him a break and let him spout and rant, much like what you do when you’re at the mall and somebody’s four-year-old kid is out of control, screaming and flailing because he didn’t get a candy. Just as you’re glad that it’s not YOUR kid, be glad that God smiled upon you at birth and you didn’t end up being either a relative or co-worker of this moron.

“And if that wasn’t enough, 58 million of you wanted to replace Laurel with Hardy as the next president. Sweet Jesus if I could jump through this computer screen and slap the crap out of 58 million of you I would.”

Oh, Helen, I love you. I live in Austin, too. Would you please be my grandma?

OK, just spoke with a member of a younger generation who has actually turned out to be a very bright person. The big 3 auto companies have contracts with the Pentagon. For example, General Motors makes the Humvee. I am surprised no one from the Motor City, the Pentagon, Capitol Hill or the White House has brought this into play to tighten the screws on us taxpayers. You know, the national security thing? If they do not have the rolling armaments, etc. the Big 3 make, well, you can just imagine and furnish the rest of that argument.

Oh, and General Motors is supposed to be #2 in the world, competitive with Toyota! And yet GM is in deep financial doo-doo. I don’t think Toyota has the same financial problems.

The Kahuna from Ford was on TV in the past 24 hours not so glibbly explaining why he and his cohorts at the top of the pyramid are paid so flaming much money. None of them are worth that much! They swear their pay is predicated on the “risk” they take! Hey, I’ve seen an assembly line! The work there is way the bleep riskier than pushing a pencil at a desk and hefting a martini at lunch!

Let the oil companies bail them out. If they are going to get any more money -even though they wasted the money they have already gotten – it will have to come out of the 700 Billion dollar boondoggle. Or is that the plan bail out the auto companies in hopes that all the folks who lose their homes will buy big cars so they can live in them. Bailing them out makes no sense. If the auto makers are serious about being in trouble let the following happen:

All of the board of directors and senior managers forgo bonuses and salaries for a period of 2 years which is how long they say it will take for them to turn things around.

The rank and file workers they claim to be trying to save now that they are in trouble have been forced to make concessions in salary and health care and yet executives get major bonuses every year. There is a huge wage gap between the workers and the managers.

They design well made not fix or repair daily cars that give the people what they want. People buy foreign made cars because they last.

We just gave the banks a 7 billion dollar bailout with apparently no restrictions since most of them are not using the money how it was originally intended, instead using it for mergers and aquisitions.
The Republicans had no problem with that……..oh yeah, they fussed a little about it but these are their supporters. The Big Business they are so fond of.
The automakers want a LOAN, to be paid back, but of course the opponents are blaming the union worker for the problem. It is once again the top managment who sent their production lines offshore, making crap that no one wants and making for themselves plenty of money. The Republicans don’t want to help and have said they will filabuster any bill put up for a vote. This Repub bunch has filabustered more bills than any Republican group in the history of the United States……….this goes right along with Dubya who will go down as the worst President in history. This is about the workers, the people who voted for Barack Obama. That is the biggest reason Republicans are fighting it.

The Republicans are determined to leave the biggest mess ever left behind by a president. They want to give Barack an insurmountable roadblock and then in 2 months when it hasn’t all been fixed they can yell , “see what happens when Democrats lead”. Democrats have had to clean up the messes of every Republican President. It will not happen overnight.

We now have a Democrat going to the Senate from Alaska, we need to win both Minnesota and Georgia. Breaking the filabuster is key because the Republicans say they will band together, no matter what, for their benefit and not for the benefit of the United States, and block every bill that is presented. They do not want healthcare, they do not want to help the middle class, they do not want alternative fuel and they want everything to be deregulated.

I am with Helen, I don’t want to ride in a clown car. I want my children and grandchildren to be safe in a vehicle and with big multi-ton trucks driving on our highways, we can’t afford to be in little tiny cars. We need medium sized cars, trucks and SUVs that run on alternative and clean fuel. The technology is there, the big oil companies just don’t want that. Their profits would go in the toilet. There are cars already running on McDonald’s french fry oil, we already have E85, but very few cars are equipt to use it and very few stations carry E85. This has all been a giant scheme between automakers and big oil . They have screwed us 6 ways from Sunday and we should be able to turns our backs and say no. But, the loan is not just for the big guys, the trickle down effect will be massive if we don’t. think about all of the businesses that would be affected if we do nothing.

Karen P,
I lived overseas too and we rented a great Ford station wagon (stick shift) in England and got about 39 mpg. It was super – roomy, easy to drive, comfortable. I contacted Ford to ask why I can’t get that car here and they sent back some bullshit letter about different markets blah blah blah. I think they know how to make better cars, but have not really wanted to as long as Americans buy Hummers. So, I’ll continue to buy my foreign cars, and I agree with everyone else, let the oil companies bail GM out.

Helen you are a bitch and Margaret is just stupid. You are not Christian. You are probably like Obama trying to manipulate our government for you r own gain. You iditios who come here and leve comments worshiping them are just sheep like all of the Obama voters. Wait and see what our country is like in a year. You won’t think you are so smart then. The car makers are in trouble because of financing and the banks are in trouble because the middle east is trying to win the war by manipulating oil prices. And now Obama is going to help them. You are all stupid.

I’d been thinking about this, too, but I think the oil companies should RUN the auto industry. They’re so good at managing their companies and claim their profits don’t come from spikes in gas prices, but in their investment and management, so they can bring their expertise over and overhaul and make the auto industry as sucksessful as they are!

If Republicans have such a small Government; then how come I keep finding them in my reproductive organs?

or in my Library Account?

Or tapping my phone?

Or disseminating false news?

I used to vote republican because that is what they used to stand for. They dont stand for less government any more. They stand for religious hegemony, institutional mysogyny and the shredding of the Bill of Rights from Habeas Corpas to Right to Privacy to First Amendment Freedoms.

The likelihood of M&H becoming the Left version of FLush Limburger, the inventor of the Feminazi who regularly makes offensive pronouncements against religious minorities and nonWhite Races, and hates intellectualism–Ha! That will be the day.

Abuck. I live in Minnesota and yes, its frustrating.
However, when a race is this close (i.e. Franken and Coleman), it is mandated that there must be a recount. I recall during one of the last elections, there were ballots in New Mexico that showed up late because who ever was supposed to deliver them didn’t. It happens.
Franken has not asked for a recount. It is mandated by law that it must be done. Although Franken may not have experience, Coleman has had a few underhanded things going on during this campaign.
I really don’t care who wins, as long as it is done accurately and within the letter of the law. So, no, Coleman hasn’t won twice. The recount has just begun.

OMG! Could it be? Why, yes! It’s true! There she is! The elusive Miss Margaret! Hoorah!

FABulous to hear from you. Here’s an idea for you. Get the asshat’s address and post it here with the boilerplate note you want a few of your new million-plus friends to send him. Better yet, find out the email address for the Chief Asshat in Charge of whatever giant conglomerate thing what owns the store and we’ll shut his inbox down!

Gramma Helen,
Your idea about the oil companies bailing out the auto industry is GENIUS (as usual). I will be writing congresspersons.

Both Of You,

I agree with Fran and others that the Global/Local thing ROCKS! Hope it continues. You make my day!

Helen, I do love your blog and share your views on many things, but you might want to take a look at what I just posted on my blog re the Big 3 loan request. Think about losing 3 million jobs here in the US will do to our economy. Go here:

Susan go be less self righteous on your own blog. We like Helen (and Margaret) just the way they are. BTW – your small government Republician party doesn’t exist. Never really did but I guess you can keep wishing. And while you are wishing why don’t you shove it…

“We can have a next-stage prosperity where you don’t have to build your lives around a fuel source that is distant, uncertain and easily manipulated. We will demand and develop new technologies to free ourselves from gas-tank price-gouging, and we will sell those technologies to the world. We’ll build a new generation of fuel-efficient vehicles — and then make it easy for families to afford them.”

Who is the We he was talking about? If it is the government, God help us. It couldn’t deliver mail. If it is We the people, then no matter who was in power, who or what was holding back the talent? The great businesses that succeeded were not run by the government.

I vote Republican not because I like Laurel or Hardy. I vote for limited government, individual responsibility, and not vote so much power to the politicians that we have to rely on them for all my needs or freedom. Perhaps seeing what happened in China with all powerful governments taint my view.

It would be good to be less self righteous. Otherwise you risk being the Rush Limbaugh on the left. Unless that turns you on.

Good post though -about the idea of oil companies bailing out Detroit.

I just saw a little snippet about VP Dick Cheney having to face charges for corruption? It has something to do with the prison system being private and money being made. Two Texas judges had their court rooms shut down today because the judges are also implicated. It sounds like Cheney and Bush will work overtime to get the charges thrown out. I bet that Bush will play his GET OUT OF JAIL free card for Cheney and absolve him of anything he has done illegal.

I sure hope Cheney has to face a judge. I know sure as hell that I would be in front of a judge the crap Cheney and his friends have been doing.

Mr Abuck,
You know, Barack wants the country to come together…unity. But for you, I will be happy to make an exception. I would spit in your face…and not quiver…in fact, I think I may even have a smile on my face….:)

Mr abuck,
You know Obama really wants the country to come together. But, for you, I will make an exception. I would spit in your face and would not quiver, not even a little. I think I would have a smile on my face. 🙂

Margaret – your store manager is a tool, but the district manager is an ass hat! hahaha!

My brother in law has the theory that the gov’t (GWB et al) are paying off the hybrid companies to only produce a small amount of vehicles (I’ve been on a waiting list so long, I think the waiting list has a waiting list) so that we ARE dependent (hmm, texas oil man – hard to believe isn’t it?). I mean c’mon – we’re american for God’s sakes – we used to be producers! Now we’re just consumers. It’s disgusting.

Helen, nice hearing from you again. Margaret, ’bout time we heard from you!

What I want to ask is….has anyone traveled overseas to find that Ford produces a “KA.” It is a subcompact that has really good gas mileage, can transport 4 adults and it’s cute. Can anyone tell me why Ford cannot sell the “KA” in the US? Here we are screaming for vehicles that are economical on gas, and the majority of those of us that want that type of vehicle are buying Smart cars (me, but mine is the European version so I actually get the 60 mpg that they are supposed to get) or Prius models, both of which are not American cars. I remember the whole “Buy American” campaign and I remember thinking, “Well, if they would make what I want to buy, I would!”

How about another topic….anyone seen the “Who Killed the Electric Car?” It is tragic what we have done in this country to “protect” the profits of big oil….Sarah, do you have any comments on this???

Anyway, I am signing out. But one thing I know for sure….the car companies employ FAR too many people for us to lose those jobs at this point in history. I just hope when we give the money, that they don’t fart it out the other end.

[…] Now days Oil is found in just about every product. If it has plastic of any type there is oil. In fact just about any manufactured good has Oil or an Oil byproduct as an ingredient. The bad news is that with Peak Oil, Oil Extraction is becoming much more expensive. Couple this with the Environmental costs of doing so and it starts to look extremely unattractive. […]

Write your congressman or better call him/her since time is critical. Complaining to each other does nothing. ACTION is key. Sounding off and speaking up is fine, but our voices need to be heard at the politicians and corporate crap level. A blog isn’t going to do it. Stop buying American cars as a choice for your voice. Organize, motivate and create change. Protest, do something. GET UP! STAND UP!

It’s silly to speculate on what would have happened if who or what had been in power, etc. But the hairspray and ozone example gives us a good chance to look at what happened when scientists identified a problem, made a big, cohesive stink about it, and then government (worldwide!) listened and took action. The change in policy that occurred removed hazardous chemicals from hairspray, refrigerators, and air conditioning units, among others. These are facts, history, found many places including here

that indicate that when scientists are in agreement about something, which they are now, and they have a solution in mind which they clearly communicate to the public and our legislators, actual policy change and public mindset change can occur.

Someone put a few articles on this blog with good examples climate change discourse. If we all read them, then we can have reasonable discussions about the future of our country and our globe as opposed to conversations about what Al would have or would have not done.

One of the abiding criticisms – true or otherwise – of the American psyche is that it creates bad losers. abuck, you’re proving it to be true.

I won’t go into the environmental issues. I find that climate flat-earthers are nearly as bad at accepting the true facts as vegans.

One of the questions that no-one dares to ask is whether “9/11” ((11/9) over here) would have happened during a Gore administration. Quite possibly not. Following the WTC attack in the early 90’s, the CIA kept a close eye on the factions that would eventually become know as Al Qaida. On taking power, Bush (possibly due to his family’s close connections with Bin Laden) ordered them to be removed from the priority list. Also on 10th September 2001, USAF planes bombs and Iraqi maternity hospital. Just like Thatcher’s little South Atlantic vote winning adventure in 1982, this was a planned war.

Back to the domestic energy issue. In the UK, the main thrust of the oil prices issue is the price of electricity and domestic heating. All have made huge profits, but are making excuses for not dropping prices. Letter writing campaigns have started, asking energy companies to lower their rates and give some of the profits to the customers. Has anyone started rounding on the power companies in the US?

I heard on MSNBC yesterday morning from one of their talking heads who is in Russia studying their economic tsunami that people in Russia who actually still have some money are buying cars–they figure the value of the car will remain more steady than the value of the euro.

[[[I too would like to let the car makers fend for themselves. They made this mess, let them clean it up. UA went into bankruptcy and survived….]]]

Funny, isn’t it, how all of the free-market/lassaiz-faire advocates don’t feel that way when the companies who gained wildly because of lack of regulations start doing poory. Then these free-market asshats suddenly become corporate socialists, crying out for welfare for corporations who are failing because of decades of mismanagement.

Free-market is really a kind of natural selection for greedy corporations. Almost any company that has at least one congressrep in his pocket can profit in a free-market environment. But even without regulations, poorly managed companies, which routinely raided its own coffers to make it’s CEOs billionaies, will eventually fall victim to their own avarice and greed.

So let’s just let the cruel fist of natural selection clear the corporate gene pool of the genetic-mutants like GM.

To quote Frank Zappa in the song “Brown Shoes,” “Do you love it? Do you hate it? There it is, the way you made it.”

Speaking of government cheese and the car industry bail out… Since my brain is dead today I’ll point you to http://thedailyduke.com. He has some fine suggestions on a better way to handle the bail out. Such as a government check written to every consumer and made payable to the taxpayer and, say Ford Motor Company jointly so we can go buy one of those cars and stimulate the economy the only way it really happens at all, which is when we are not all so broke we can’t buy anything!

Asshat is a term I started using around more polite folks. It is not quite as offensive as asshole, and it’s funny, and it’s hard for people to be pissy over a word choice when they are laughing.

“Asshat” makes me think of Cormac McCarthy’s “Cities of the Plain.” In the book, one of the good ol’ boys, talking about a local rancher’s daughter who won a beauty contest, said “Of course, she’s about as ugly as a hat full of behinds.”

Perhaps we should orgnaize a Miss Asshat contest? The “talent portion” would be worth the price of admission.

Wan et. al. “A new variable for climate change study and implications for the built environment” in Renewable Energy: An International Journal (March 2009) 34.3 (need to wait a few months for this one)

Al Gore is not a climatologist; he’s a politician. I think I’ll listen to the experts on this issue.

Again, don’t we WANT them to be wrong?
Who profits from them being right?

The climate…aren’t we talking about a change of +/- 0.1 degrees in the last decade? I’m no expert, but when Gore himself states that some of the information that he’s spewed may be inaccurate I’ll believe it. Liberals like to motivate using scare tactics like this! When I was in 2nd grade I was told that the ozone layer would be gone by now if we continued using AC and hairspray…how does that look right now?

I agree with what the first lady that responded to me said…Americans have been greedy, we’ve overspent, we’ve have been lending money too freely, and not many people have prepared themselves for a down time. Take some blame for your own actions and stop playing the victim role…things aren’t always rosy and with success comes failure.

Living in MN and seeing the Senate race debacle 1st hand is sickening! Votes for Franken are being discovered days later in the trunks of peoples cars, 1 election official miscounted initially and discovered another 100 votes for Franken (none for Coleman)…the DFL is pushing hard to ruin this election! Coleman has already won twice! I can actually understand how someone could vote for Obama (even though I don’t agree), but how could you look at Franken’s record/history/experience and think that he would be a qualified Senator? MN is the true “Welfare State” or “Nanny State” which ever you prefer. We’ve already suffered through the Jesse Ventura debacle from a few years back…please don’t let it happen again!

I look forward to critiquing Obama’s decisions once he actually has to make one. Again, I hope that he proves me wrong for the good of America. However, I find it hard to fathom considering that he is against just about every value & belief system that our country was founded on!

Oh yeah, I caught a Lib spitting on my car yesterday because I have a “Nobama” sign in the window…I wasn’t surprised…he was just showing his true colors! It’s funny watching a 40 year old, pubic faced man quiver when confronted. Have any bloggers on this website done the same? I’d probably say “yes” and that’s without knowing any of you!

Helen,
On a gut level I agree with you. I’m tired of supporting coporate welfare. The big BUT I see in this situation is that don’t these manufacturers also manufacture vehicles for our military? I think it’s important to keep those jobs in America. I don’t want our armored vehicles, etc. made abroad.
I think the bailout may be a necessity but there needs to be a lot of conditions on it (not just raising mpg standards).

From a retired Realtor to the full-time Realtor – So you did great up until about 2 years ago when the real estate market started to decline. You did great under the first 8 years of Bush———–
Study history – you are an idoit – I did great in the first 8 years of the Reagan administration during the 80’s. Then the Savings & Loans went under due to Reagannomics and deregulation and my last years as a Realtor consisted of telling sellers they had to bring $40,000. to the closing table to sell the house I sold them in the “good years.” Bankers and lawyers and developers went to jail or killed themselves. Homeowners saw their homes forclosed and some of them committed suicide. I was involved in three lawsuits. Our Board of Realtors had more lawsuits in one year than they had in the previous 60 years.
Republicians destroy the system for mainstreet. They rob the system of checks and balances and take their money and run from the mess they made. It’s happened twice in my lifetime. Republicians yell abortion and gay and people run to the wolf so he can devour them.
I am now retired and in the last year have lost 33% of my life savings due to the historical ignorance of people like you and Bush.
Grow up so your children don’t make the same mistake of ignorance that you are making.
Sherry Wilmoth, ex-REALTOR

Well, finally there are fewer comments so I feel comfortable about commenting. You say what I think and don’t have the courage to say, myself. I enjoy reading your blog. I am like Margaret about swearing – in fact a good friend mentioned the other day – I don’t swear (well, maybe a little, but mostly at myself!)….

Keep up the good work. If the government was reading your blog, they might actually do something.

We all have hope for the future, even though it will be a long hard climb – UP HILL!!!

“It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to open one’s mouth and remove all doubt.”
Abraham Lincoln

For those of you who seem to think that the Japanese autos are inherently better than the domestic autos, I have to let you know that the autos from both are designed by the same firms. They are all designed here in America. Over vast majority are designed in California. The difference is in the cost structuring, marketing and workmanship. The problem with our domestic auto industry is that the CEO’s of the “Big 3” and the U.A.W. have been at war for decades, with both sides pricing themselves out of jobs. Delphi Motors, a G.M. company, is closing it’s doors here in Alabama while our Toyota and Mercedes plants are flourishing. The jobs once help at Delphi have now been moved to Mexico and Poland because of labor rates of the unions workers. That old Abraham Lincoln’s wisdom is still valid today.
For some actual facts:http://citizenspeaks.wordpress.com/

I was hoping to get your take on Sarah Palin’s possible book deal. Oh Yeah! Word is she has been offered a deal and to receive as much as 7m. as a sign on bonus.

I personally can not imagine an entire book of her folksy mind boggling riddles. It’s sure to hurt the brain of anyone that dares to read. I personally have a tendency of forgetting what the subject is by the time she is done taking my mind all around the mulberry bush and back.

Well, I have to tell you that I love your blog. It makes me smile to see someone agree with how I see the world. I’m a little outnumbered by Republicans out here in Oklahoma. I enjoyed seeing Margaret’s point of view too. Next time I’ll bring the cake, I have an apple spice one that’s to die for.

You know what my local grocery store just did? They’re putting in all new shelves and moving everything around and now all the cleaning products and detergents are in the same aisle as all the baking goods! I’m going to have brownie mixes that smell like Tide and baking soda that tastes like bleach! It’s just plain wrong.

And I don’t see why these big car companies are having so much trouble. Obviously, they need better marketing/PR people. We’ve got countless companies running around selling bottled water, BOTTLED WATER, and Ford can’t sell some cars?

LOVE the idea of the oil industry bailing out the auto makers. You are genius! I enjoyed hearing from Margaret. This is the first time since I’ve been reading your blog that Margaret has posted. You make me laugh and you brighten my day. FYI – I found out about you from Rosie O’donnell’s website. One of her bloggers sent in the link and I’m so happy that I checked it out.

Thank you both! I agree with both of you. The oil companies record profits enrage me. The idiocy of the last 8 years and the fact that 58 million people voted for this lying sob…well, slapping the crap out of them would be a public service.

Margaret, I have no problem with colorful language and I’ve been bitching for years about stores moving merchandise. Don’t hesitate to give that manager a piece of your commonsense in terms he’ll remember!

TodayIi have a nasty sinus infection. I’ve been feeling pretty awful but after reading your latest post I’ve laughed so much I don’t even need an aspirin. Thanks for making me feel better!

Damn, double damn. I missed it. I really wanted to see that turn over to one million “hits.” Instead, I log in and see 8K plus over. Can’t be helped. I am on a cruise to Mexico, and internet connection at $25/hour is expensive — not to mention all those exotic drinks the cute servers keep plying me with!

So happy to see Margaret joining in, too. I’m with her. Change around my grocery store, and I am not a happy shopper, Ladies.

Okay, that’s all I can afford right now. Will check in again when I dock!

How nice to find both of you posting your thoughts! Many points well taken in your usual delightful style.

It has occurred to me that perhaps even idiots, morons, bitches and jackasses CAN learn IF information is presented in a way that they can understand. It may be necessary to go all the way back to the kindergarten level though and would take infinite patience. Well, maybe not, but it’s worth a try.

We like to travel. Over the 55 years of our marriage, we have been to almost every nook and cranny in the United States and Canada, mostly by car.

My husband’s work involved a great deal of traveling that racked up plenty of frequent flyer miles. So once a year we took a lovely trip somewhere. Along that line, we got hooked on cruises. I have spent most of my adult life catering to other people’s needs. On cruises, I get to be pampered for a change. It is nice to be on the receiving end. Somebody else gets to cook gourmet meals for me and clean up afterward. Somebody else makes my bed and doesn’t mind if I throw towels on the bathroom floor. (Not permitted in our house!)

Cruising sounds like expensive luxury. Not necessarily. If you add up the costs of airfare from one place to another, going through security at airports, collecting your bags, renting a car, getting maps and getting lost; checking in and out of hotels all the while schlepping your bags back and forth, meals; well, cruising evens out the expenses. You unpack on the ship and move in. Everything is included except booze and soft drinks. The ship sails at night and you wake up in a different port the next morning. The shore excursions have local English speaking guides who generally know where they are going and what they are talking about.

One of the tactics used to try to shoot down Obama’s candidacy was to try to convince people he was a Muslim. It was all over the inter net. Since 9/11 we have been carefully taught to be suspicious and afraid of Muslims.

Before 9/11 we had been to three countries that are predominately Muslim; Malaysia on a South China Seas cruise and also on a Mediterranean cruise to Morocco and Tunisia on the North African coast of the Sahara Desert. After 9/11 we went to Turkey on a Greek Island cruise.

Granted, we were taken to places that would be of interest to tourists. However, we always kept our eyes, ears and yes, our noses open to take in the flavor of the places and the people we met on the streets, in shops and restaurants. One quite disturbing aspect we have encountered in different parts of the world is a decided stench to appalling and heart wrenching poverty that is CENTURIES old. We have not found that smell in the United States because our country is only several hundred years old. But lets not kid our selves. We have plenty of pockets of poverty here too. When was the last time you drove through the Bronx in New York?

In Malaysia some of the people, men women and children were dressed in the traditional clothing of long pants with colorful long tunics. Most were dressed in what we consider Western style business suits, some carrying briefcases. The capitol, Kuala Lumpur is a large extremely modern city like New York, Chicago or Los Angeles, skyscrapers and all.

Morocco is a desert country. We took the usual tours and shopped for interesting souvenirs. The merchants LOVE to haggle prices! On the way back to the ship, a young man was carrying a stack of traditional embroidered women’s dresses over his arm. We haggled back and forth. At the gangplank, I wound up with three of them for $10.00 American, one for me and two for friends for Christmas. I Christmas shop year round!

In Tunis we had lunch at a beautiful resort on the edge of the desert. Out the wide expanse of the windows, we saw two men on camels – talking on cell phones. We saw NO women at all in Tunis. I committed a cultural faux pas with our guide at the Roman ruins of Carthage. We had been warned that under NO CIRCUMSTANCES does a woman EVER approach and speak to a man who is not a relative. I forgot and asked the guide a question that could have been answered with a simple yes or no. He drew himself up to his full height, looked down his nose and said, “All your questions will be answered in time, Madam.” Oops!

Our last stop was at a bazaar for shopping. I was accustomed to take back a small animal for a friend who collects them. I saw a pretty little black one. The rule about women not speaking to men does not apply to shopping. The salesman said it was $75.00 American. I walked away. He came out from behind the counter with it and we haggled. He told me it was onyx, not plastic, was hand carved, blah, blah, blah. Finally he asked me how much I would give him for it. I said five bucks. Sold!

After 9/11 we went to Cappadocia and visited a mosque in Istanbul, Turkey. But that’s another story.

The point here is, the last I heard, one out of five people in the world is Muslim. By and large they are no different than anybody else anywhere. It is a shame that SOME religious fanatics can cause the rest of the people of that religion to be considered horrible enemies. By the way, does anybody know what the percentage of the world’s population is “Christian”?

Maybe SOME religious leaders and the ideologies of SOME political leaders don’t get along very well, but we ordinary people do!

Seeing eye chick! thanks for responding to my comment. Can you imagine how advanced electric vehicle technology would have been if only GM kept going?? Frankly the American automotive industry have been building more or less the same cars for 40 years, while the competition, led by Japanese, German and French automakers kept evolving. And GM just always counted on the massive American market. The moto was “Americans will always buy American cars” That’s why assembly line union workers in Detroit, installing a windshield or a door, make 6 figure salaries plus pension plus benefits, more than college grads and some doctors. Don’t get me wrong I’m happy for them, but eventually those expenses trickle down to the price of the car, and if the car is not as good as the competition… well you see my point.

I live in northern Illinois, near the Wisconsin border. I admit I own a 4-wheel drive vehicle (but it is the smallest one I could find). I have gotten stuck in snow one too many times and I am *of an age* where pushing an automobile is beyond the limits of my physical strength. To compensate for my car’s poor MPG rating, however, I do drive it less. I am fortunate that my employer has a work-from-home policy, so I only drive into the office 2 days a week. I grocery shop only once every 2 weeks. I can go almost 3 weeks on one tank of gas.

Speaking of grocery shopping:
A few months ago, my supermarket moved the pet food to the far end of the store, just before the liquor aisle. It takes me so far out of my way to find the Purina, I play the might-as-well game and splurge on a bottle of wine or two. Who knew marketing folks tied pet-owners to drinkers? (*hic*)

I see that abuck6 has signed on to be the visiting troll ASSHAT for the day! Welcome abuck6 troll asshat. Hopefully your post will be the inspiration for a nice big fat takedown by my heros, Helen and Margaret. But until they get around to sitting you down hard and schooling you on the error of your ways, I’ll just leave you with this thought: There’s a way better than average chance that if President Gore would have been in his rightful place as POTUS when the memo came that Bin Laden was “determined to strike in the US” that he would have actually done something about that instead of clearing brush on some fake ranch. Put that in your asshat pipe and suck it.

I saw your url on Huffington Post and have been hooked ever since! To those of you who don’t believe these two are in their 80s, I would have to say I believe they are because my mother (who is 84) says things like Helen and Margaret.

Dear Smartandfemale: I live in Georgia and voted for Jim Martin the first time around and will do so in the runoff. Chambliss has been nothing but Bush’s water carrier for the past 6 years and I STILL haven’t forgotten the nasty race he ran against Max Cleland. For those of you who don’t know, Max Cleland is a Vietnam Vet, triple amputee, who had major differences of opinion regarding most of the policies that Bush implemented just after 9/11. During the campaign, Chambliss portrayed Cleland as a traitor to his country for questioning the new policies and even had one commercial with both Cleland’s and Ben Ladin’s pictures on the same screen. I thought it was really rich the way Chambliss made every one question Cleland’s love of country. This was from a man who had 5, let me repeat 5, deferments during the whole Vietnam War. Can you tell that I’m still so mad about this that I could spit?

REAL climatologists (i.e., those with degrees and published, reputable scholarship) are pretty much in agreement. Human beings are contributing to the hastening pace of what is a natural cycle that takes millions of years, not just hundreds or thousands.

I always thought the only way to hear someone say exactly what was on their minds was to talk to a kindergartner, but from your blog, I have learned that old friends are also brashly honest! Keep on saying what you think and thinking what you say! It’s obvious to me that you both have strong beliefs and arent a bit shy about expressing them! You are very refreshing and quite hilarious!

abuck6 – well, there’s a chance that if Gore had been pres during 9/11, we might have put more effort into finding Osama been forgotten, and a little less into invading a country that wasn’t a threat.

And we now return to topic. As much as the whole thought of bailing out the auto industry does annoy me, we the American people don’t have a lot of room for throwing stones since we were the ones buying those size-of-a-freakin’-bus SUVs that we didn’t need but wanted to impress the neighbors with. We got hoist on our own petard and now we want to cry about it. Same with the oil companies. We drove those gas guzzlers back and forth on longer and longer commutes so that we could afford bigger-than-we-needed houses that took even more fuel to heat. We might as well have had vanity plates that read “oh please, mr. big oil company, keep raising the price of gas and I’ll keep burning it as fast as humanly possible.” The price of gas didn’t start going down until WE started hurting enough to ease up on consumption. Same with the auto companies. Ten years ago they couldn’t build them fast enough to suit us. Now we’re suddenly calling THEM spoiled?

The oil companies make 4% profit while the Government takes 15%…doesn’t that seem a little ridiculous? I would assume that higher gas prices would equal higher profits for both?

Al Gore…it’s scary to think that he was that close to becoming our President at one time…thank goodness that they got it right! I would hate to think where our country would be right now if he were in charge during 9/11. Do you think that he would have made a decision on what to do by now? I wouldn’t consider a guy that trumped up this “global warming” BS as brilliant. The earth heats and cools naturally…most of us know these phenomenons as “the 4 Seasons”.

It’s hard to think about bailing out the failing auto industry until a plan is in place that will turn things around. It would probably help if there weren’t any restrictions on the vehicles that they made. The American SUV’s were very good sellers and could easily compete with their foreign competition.

What do you think about the talk of a credit card bailout? Let’s continue to reward irresponsibility! Come on people…things aren’t always going to be good and a lot of the bad things that people are dealing with right now are their own fault!

Helen, you also need to relax a little about “the last 8 years”! The election is over and “the chosen one” is almost ready to take over. Will you please keep me updated when Obama helps you/us out? When will people stop blaming Bush? Let’s see how Obama does during his first 6-12 months…hopefully he will prove me wrong, but I’m not counting on it.

Oh yeah,
and about the big oil bucks bailing out the car mfgrs, good Idea.
My version, every big Oil company has to buy a 10% minimum shares of a big car Mfgr and invest 50% of their PROFITS (That is AFTER tax) to cover any losses……..
Make that a worldwide law and see fuel effificient affordable cars flood the markt!
;-P

Hi Margaret and Helen
I just want to comment on the “grocery store hide the stuff and screw the customer who notices” kinda thing.
I am a person with 28 % eyesight (including all the help my glasses can provide) and I relay a lot on just memorizing on where stuff is, works fine around the house (I hate searching for things as much as the next gal/guy) but some bigger department stores with management driven staff (You know, those friendly minimum wages slaves without the iron collar…) just drive me crazy!
My solution is to get the smaller stuff that I don’t need to get from the big stores and buy it at the small corner-store, for 2 reasons, first I know the guy has to work so hard to survive that he just hasn’t got the friggin’ time to move things around, and second with the couplpe of extra bucks I have to pay him (and if you really compare prices you’ll see that the difference is mostly in the pennies!) I help him to stay alive and open and give him the ability to still serve me a few years down the road.
And with all the price contiousness you still have to show me tha small shop owner that drives a Porsche or even an old Merc or BMW!
that’s my 5 cent’s worth to this theme.
greetings from Montreal

LOVE me some margaret and helen! been reading your blog for awhile before the election … and have continued to read and ‘lurk’. finally signed my happy ass up to wordpress, and will contirbute as time allows. HUGS to y’all!!!!!!

What’s outrageous to is the pay of the Big 3 CEOs. Rick Wagoner’s, GM CEO, rose 64 percent to $15.7 million even though in 2007 GM reported a $39 billion loss and stock prices fell by about 19 percent without adjusting for dividends…Chrysler CEO Robert Nardelli refuses to state his pay now that they are privately owned…Ford CEO, Alan Mulally, pulled down $28 million for four months on the job in 2007 after a year of record net losses of $12.7 billion in 2006. Compare that to this: Toyota CEO Hiroshi Okuda made $903,000 in 2007 when they made a record $14.9 billion profits – under 50% of that being from sales in the U.S. The GM CEO makes what the top 9 guys at Toyota make together. I have no doubt that all three U.S. Big Three CEOs voted for McCain, given that they personally gain from keeping the Bush tax cuts going after they expire in 2011 and since their corporate taxes are lower it makes their bonuses bigger – apparently whether or not they make a profit. They rake it in year after year, even when they know business is tanking, yell “socialist” during the election year, then turn to the government for handouts when their pockets are empty. This kind of hypocrisy makes me nuts. I cannot understand why shareholders continue allowing the Board of Directors to pass these kinds of compensation packages. I am in a profit-driven business and my pay is directly linked to sales – if I don’t bring money in, I don’t get paid. Even after all this, I begrudgingly support granting the bailout money because, being from Detroit (and now in DC), I know the domino effect of a Chapter 11 or 7 liquidation. They will lose 2-3million jobs. It’s not just the “overpaid” union factory workers, it’s printers, ad agencies, mailers, dealerships, mechanics, banks, and suppliers of every type of metal, screw, fabric, hoses, wiring, electrical stuff you can imagine. The Big 3 has had these suppliers on contract terms of net 180-360 days, which means the suppliers have been financing them for years. If they reorganize and excuse their debts, these suppliers – who are also taxpayers like us — are the ones who get screwed in the end. Part of the deal has to be the removal of the total donut-hole CEOs and board members.

I too would like to let the car makers fend for themselves. They made this mess, let them clean it up. UA went into bankruptcy and survived.

The only problem with letting the big-3 fail is they are the biggest employers in the country. We don’t need more people out of work right now. Also, leaders in economics all say the cost of letting the big-3 fail would be around 170bn.

I think if money is given to them, it should come with many, many strings attached.
Also, from what I have read the 21-25bn would not come out of the 700bn bail-out.

And if you didn’t know – Prez Clinton gave the big-3 money to fund research into electric cars. The big-3 worked on them for awhile then junked the cars and kept the money.

As to Margaret’s complaint – try going to farmers markets and other local vendors. You will reduce the amount you are paying for fruit and veggies. Then when you go to your local grocery store tell them they are losing money by ticking you off, because you are going somewhere else to buy food.

Margaret — I am so happy to hear you speak at last! I thought maybe Helen had tied you up in a closet until the election was over.

Here is one of my new favorite swear words you can use when referring to someone who you think is really an idiot: Donut-hole!!

I’ve had to resort to so my seven year old won’t go off on the bus driver at school. I have frequently yelled at my husband, You Donut-hole! when he puts the ice cream in the pantry or some other thing and I find it quite satisfying.

and i thought this blog couldn’t get any better! you just made my day.

ass hat is a very powerful expression, margaret! same connotation as the other but different enough that people take notice. all except the ass hat him or herself, however, usually. if you’re in even more tame company, arse hat works too.

love you both. and if you come to visit helen, i hope we can have an austin party for all of you!

It doesn’t matter if you’re not from Georgia. I’ve never even been there. Senate votes affect ALL of us and we do NOT want to see Saxbe Chambliss (or whatever his name is), who makes Sarah Palin look like a moderate, in the senate, when we could have made a difference with a small donation.

Helen and Margaret. Thank you, thank you for this incredible blog. I read it, then read it to my husband. You have the only blog that will have him sit down and ask me what you said. We agree with 100% of everything you say. He used to work for the US EPA and was always frustrated with the Republican govenment’s deliberate disregard for the environment. The Drill, Baby, Drill and no effort to encourage fuel efficient cars is just more Repubilcan sentiment.

Helen,
I agree with you 100%: the oil companies
should bail out the auto manufacturers.
I was also one of the people who thought about this when the word first came out that the auto manufacturers would need more financial help. Big Oil has the Big Billions.
Let them pay for the auto manufacturers’
allowing them to have made all those Billions.
By the way, You Guys Rock!!!!!

Great idea, Helen! Let them scratch each other’s…whatever. And Margaret, I’m with you. I frequently walk around swearing about “where it used to be.” Why can’t they just leave it be? I know…they want us to wander around and buy other stuff–see shelves we wouldn’t normall go to. Well, I’ve got news for them–loyalty means a lot in my book and I don’t much care for getting jerked around and having them use “shopping psychology” on me. I’m just saying….

Helen AND Margaret in one post today! Is it Christmas? Margaret, I have to say, you are as much of a kick as your best friend, whose voice we have become so familiar with. Here’s an idea, maybe you can get your Town Car retro-fitted so it can run on McDonald’s grease. Much better for the environment even though you will probably smell like a french fry.

And yeah, everybody else merges, why can’t the oil and auto companies? Although, then they’d definitely never get off the oil tit and the Hummers would take over the world! It’s a conundrum.

Ladies – How great to hear from both of you and two points of view. However I think both points can boil down to being the problem with having an economy based on consumerism. Now before you all jump down my throat for being socialist or communist ….. what about an economy based on education? Could it be done? What if we dumped all that cash into making sure that each individual got all the support s/he needed to reach the maximum of their potential? I ask again – could it be done?

And in regards to the posts about our need to “save the planet”. The late great George Carlin said it best – the planet is a self regulating system and will survive the real question is will she let us keep living on it?

It’s so nice to “meet” you, Margaret. I couldn’t agree more about the evil of moving groceries around in the store. I haven’t got time for that crap!

I’ll sheepishly admit to being quite familiar with the term “asshat” — but I just learned a new and delicious term from commenter Kristin: “f*cknuttery”. Oooohhh, does THAT roll off the tongue nicely! Sounds like it would be good on toast too. 🙂

BTW, Helen, I’m heading over to view The View so don’t feel you have to suffer today if you don’t want. I’ll update later if anything of interest happens i.e. Elizabeth or Sherry say anything remotely intelligent.

Great idea to have the oil companies bail out the car industry. They’ve been in bed together for decades–that’s why gas guzzlers still dominate the highways. While we’re at it, let’s have the hedge fund managers bail out Wall Street. They’ve got the money. Thanks for keeping it real!

Is it just conincidence that by changing the first letter of the word from an L to an N makes it, and him, a Neanderthal? Elders have a brain and a sense of humor too, nitwit. I’m 83 years old, blog and am told I do a fairly good job.

It’s easy to see why you have so many hits. You are the funniest writers on the Internet. Point and Counterpoint. I’ll bet Jay Leno or Letterman would pay you a mint to write for them.

Hi, y’all, first time posting but I’ve been reading you gals ever since the SP is a bitch blog and you are simply MAH-velous!

We have two vehicles – mine is a 4-cyl car that gets pretty good gas mileage but is over 10 yrs old. Hubby’s is a gas-eating humungo pick up from his construction-working days before he retired 3 yrs ago. He would LIKE to get a smaller, more fuel-effcient pick up and I would LIKE to get a newer (preferably hybrid) car but
now that we are on a fixed-income, car/truck payments are out of the question. Fortunately, both vehicles are in pretty good working order so we just keep our fingers crossed they’ll remain that way, at least until the economy and our 401k improves and we can afford to take a larger monthly distribution. If either one pukes before then, I guess we’ll be driving what is known here in central ny as a “winter rat” aka “beater”.

My pet peeve with grocery stores at the moment is with Walmart (of course). They used to match virtually any lower price from area stores so I always made my list from the Sunday flyers and went to Walmart instead of wasting gas driving to various stores for their specials. They (Walmart) have suddenly gotten a lot pickier about what they’ll accept. For instance, if Walgreen’s has something on sale but you have to use the in-store coupon if you buy it at their store, Walmart will no longer accept it as a lower price because it’s a coupon. They always did before because, I mean, what difference does it make as long as I spend my $$ at Walmart rather than Walgreen’s? I made a fuss the first time that happened and told them to keep their milk, I’d head on over to Walgreen’s and get it for almost half the price, so they let me get it that one time but warned me they were really going to crack down on their “match the lower price” policy. Guess I’ll just reassess shopping there.

Here’s a suggestion for dealing with the asshat grocery managers when they change locations of the products you want–make one of the clerks show you where the products are now located. Do it for every item that you are looking for. If enough people start eating up their time by making them assist you in finding items it may make them change their minds about re-arranging their stores everytime you turn around. I’d like to see them quit wrapping everything in that plastic where you need to men and a mule to get open.

Does anyone remember the EV-1??!!
This was a brilliant electric car that GM has built in the early 90s, only because California passed a law that forced all big car companies to have a clean car for sale. Well, after a couple of years, the auto industry together with the oil industry managed to reverse that law. GM, blinded by greed, arrogance and stupidity, collected all the electric cars they leased, took them to a lot in Arizona and, against public outcry, CRUSHED EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM!!!! If only GM continued to develope that technology they would have RULED THE WORLD right now. Now they are asking for help… Pathetic.
Everybody: go and rent “Who killed the electric car”. It’s a shocking documentary about this story. You’ll never look at GM the same way again.

PS: Kudos to all who agree to have the oil companies buy the auto makers (in the froth and spittle of my earlier post I neglected to mention Helen and like-minded others). I think we should get on the horn with our congresspeople in this lameduck session to be sure this notion gets put on their agenda.

Your idea to have the oil companies bail out the auto companies is brilliant, at first glance. I still like it to think about. Too bad it would compromise the auto companies into making gas guzzling cars – oh that’s right – they already do.

Probably the thing that has Leanderthal continuing to be suspicious is the fact the thumbnail shots of Helen and Margaret are cropped from the photo on the banner at the top of the blog instead of being new shots of each of them.

He might still be dubious even with fresh headshots, but it does add fuel for the suspicious crowd, no matter how many people chime in during the comments to say they know one or the other personally.

Anyway, I couldn’t care less if Helen and Margaret are “real” or not (though I suspect they are)….what is said is still entertaining and so true.

Helen,
You almost made me ruin my lap top.
I spit my coffee all over it laughing so hard.
I have to laugh now, because the end is in sight and I refuse to give them any more of my time thinking about them.
Think of all we can accomplish since we don’t have GW to kick around anymore. I don’t want to go through withdrawal so I suggest that we take on Rush Limbaugh for a while to ease the transition.

We own a Prius. We get 52 MPG on our long trips and 42-46 around town. I am very comfortable in my car, especially when I pass the gas station!
We should do NOTHING for the car companies unless they have to meet stringent requirements to increase increase gas efficiency.
I, for one, would support nothing less then that or else let the gas companies bail them out.

Helen,
Where I live our gas prices are hovering around $2.50/gallon and likely won’t go too much lower with the holidays coming so soon.

Exxon got a nice break last summer, too, when the Supreme Court diminished the settlement for the cost of cleanup from the Valdez spill to a fraction of what it originally was. The difference is to be made up by Alaskan taxpayers. I wonder why Mrs. Palin didn’t disagree with THAT ruling when asked by Katie Couric? Oh, yeah, right; she’s a dumbass. Not to mention the obscene profits by the oil companies; that. is. infuriating.

Keith, I love your idea about the oil industry buying the auto industry. they’re already in bed together, why not make it legal?

(Oh, but that little something about getting the milk for free . . . )

I wonder when the cost of all our goods will go down to match declining fuel prices? Never. A gallon of milk was $4.50 at the store this weekend. Which speaking of groceries (nice segue here to Margaret). . .

So nice to hear from you, Margaret. My husband does the grocery shopping (he’s awesome) but he, too, complains at the constant “treasure hunt” he endures at the store.

Hope all had a good weekend; can’t wait to see what’s next.
Hugs,
Jess

My dear friend (for over 50 years) introduced me to your blog. I loved your election coverage and was afraid your blog would end when Obama was elected. But, to my delight, you are only getting better! I liked the format of this blog.
As a mother of a child who was put into a coma by an unsafe, macho SUV, I can’t look at this with an unbiased eye. Twenty years later my daughter is still comatose; the world of SUV’s has exploded.
You have the seed of a good solution.
Helen, I was the owner of a gourmet grocery which just declared bankruptcy (after 33 years in business) in the midst of the economic crisis. Believe me, the desperate movement of products and the rearrangement of displays is the same as the oil-car issue-all attempts at getting that extra penny from your pocket.
Keep up the good work. All those Margarets and Rubys are supporting you. I see you have surpassed 1 Million hits.

Okay, this really made me giggle. Both because of Helen’s plan and because Margaret being amused by “asshat” really tickled me. Ahem. Anyway, new day dawning, new plans forming, yadda yadda, and I do think the oil and car companies need to stop thinking so short-term. Criminy. Sorry if the clown car scares you, Margaret, but we’re going to have to retro-fit your Town car if we’re going to save any gas. We’ve got about 20 years of oil left, then it’s time to rework the whole system. And as for local? That’s one way to save the gas: buy local. Nothing that has to be trucked in. Helps local economies, saves on fuel, and is what we’re all going to have to do eventually anyway. Assuming the bee colonies don’t collapse. Hope you’re having a great day!

Margaret, I’m SO with you on the grocery store moving stuff around! It drives me nuts! All I want to do is run in for some X, & I have to go down 5 different aisles, because some asshat moved it from where it was for 5 years!

My husband and I moved from Anchorage, Alaska, to Okinawa, Japan, in May 2007. In Alaska we drove a Chevrolet Tahoe. Here we have a Toyota Vitz (Yaris in the states) that gets 54 kpg (about 34 mpg). It’s not exactly a 0 to 60 in 3 seconds kind of car, but since the top speed limit on the main road of the island is 60 kph (37 mph), it does okay for the most part. I’d say 75 percent of the cars on the road are roughly the same size as mine; and with the lower speed limits, I feel pretty safe in a smaller car.

That being said, I would feel more than a little unsettled about driving a car that small in Alaska. Like Margaret in her Town Car, I liked the feeling of all that Tahoe steel around me. Driving in Alaska is scary all the time, but in the winter it’s downright terrifying! The lack of sunlight ensures that the snow on the road doesn’t melt. An unseasonably warm day turns roads and parking lots into ice skating rinks by night, and the wild animals that roam freely everywhere are HUGE! I won’t even mention the maniacs behind the wheels of the other cars.

So what’s a person to do? I’m all for alternative energy vehicles and being environmentally conscious, but I also want to feel relatively safe on the road.

Margaret and Helen, thanks for your delicious take on life and for imparting insight and wisdom in such a laugh-out-loud funny way!

Oh, man, I think I’m addicted to you two. Thank you for starting my day with a smile and something interesting to think about.

My grocery manager seems to wait until spouse and I find something we really, really like and buy every week… and then they stop carrying it. They can’t find room for Voila Garlic Chicken dinners, but they do have lawn furniture though … in a grocery store … Sigh.

Let’s take this a step further: Instead of the oil industry bailing out the auto industry, why don’t they BUY the auto industry. It’s the ultimate in ‘vertical integration’ and besides being the logical way to put the two on the same page, it could actually be very profitable. After all, they are joined at the hip, so to speak.

And why do you think that the oil industry has had such a good time? Who do you think put GW in office…. he was an (unsuccessful) oilman…. his daddy was an oilman, Cheney… oil too.

And here’s another thought for you….. maybe the oil industry should be paying for the wars……. after all, their stranglehold on the White House and Congress is the reason we are always at odds with the Middle East…. if we weren’t using up their resources, and if we had not dominated their politics for the last fifty years, maybe we could get along.

Slap Fest sounds good to me for the whole lot of what has been described.

First of all, the Manager at your store moves merchandise on purpose because some tard in some dept that studies buyers habits told him and store managers all over the country, that if you move crap around in a store, then the Customer is forced to look at and consider buying more crap, whether they want to or not. Its a trick to try and get you–the customer to impulse buy. Now if that dont piss you off–I mean how many times have we ladies nearly beat our husband’s silly because we tell them to go to the store, tell them what we want and they come back with something completely different or worse, an off brand. Its not their fault. We told them where the merchandise was last week, but the Manager moved it, and now you old man has come home with a bag of crap you didnt want and nothing you asked for. So Go Slap that Manager and his boss!

Now for the Gas/Election/Rip Off– Yea, we need to end the Cheese Fest. Record Profits! The Fuel Companies made Record Profits, not just on Gasoline but on Heating Oil, Propane and Natural Gas. To the point where states have had to start charitble programs to help the poor pay to heat their homes and apartments. How many people remember that Chavez donated Heating Oil to Americans last couple years? Even after calling Bush Satan?

Yep, Gas/Fuel Companies should have to pay for the Big Three. Those “Clown Cars” may save the planet or at least slow the death of our Climate down so Humanity doesnt go extinct just before cannibalizing each other. Remember when the only people who owned pick ups were farmers and Construction workers? Now everyone has one. They are sold like luxury cars in stead of what they were meant for. Which is trucks with powerful torq for pulling and hauling large loads like trailors, dirt and hay. Remember when Hummers were just military vehicles? Now they are Trolling tools for picking up Chicks by the uber stupid.

America couldnt save its resources to save its life. I think that is obvious in the here and now. Gas prices go back down and everyone goes back to normal like nothing ever happened.

Margaret and Helen, we are dealing with generations of Americans who feel they were born entitled. They think the world owes them. Right down from Pres. Ass Hat to everyone.

“Republicans – each and every last one of you – need to reach for the nearest gas pump and then promptly stick it so far up your ass that only Sarah Palin’s “Pipeline From Jesus” can find it. How could you do this to us? An idiot. You put an idiot in charge of things and sat by for EIGHT years while the nation and the world fell apart. And if that wasn’t enough, 58 million of you wanted to replace Laurel with Hardy as the next president. Sweet Jesus if I could jump through this computer screen and slap the crap out of 58 million of you I would.”

Ladies, you crack me up! Yours is the first site I check every morning when I log on. And as someone who works in a retail store, I can tell you that WE hate it when they move stuff around. We can’t find it either! Makes us and our customers frustrated beyond belief.

I’m at the 50 mark and I didn’t live through the Depression, but it would seem to me that if you’re going to have a free market economy, part of that is occasional correction. At some point businesses are going to succeed or fail. Somebody’s going to get the short end of the stick and we know it won’t be the owners/presidents of the companies. It’s all part of the process. Doesn’t mean I have to like it any. And I don’t want to go back to what my grandmother called “donuts on streetcorners.” (She would make donuts and pots of baked beans and sell them. Tough old Irish broad, she was!)

At what point do we realize that our government is in hock up to its proverbial eyeballs and the well is dry?

I agree, it sure is a pain in the “asshat” (gee, that felt pretty good! I like it!) to search for items that are constantly being moved. I have Parkinson’s and just going to the store at all is a very daunting challenge some days. To have to stumble around looking for for chili mix, only to find it in the potato chip aisle, doesn’t make a lot of sense now does it? I wonder who the marketing expert is that figured that one out?

I second Greytdog!!! Have the freakin oil companies bail out the car industry, that is just brilliant.
Now Helen, Margaret is right, we gotta stay in the present, don’t rehash the last eight years. My heart goes out to Barack, the fate of the free world rests on this guy’s shoulders. Enough with these Bailouts already!!!
Keep the blogs coming they are priceless.

Margaret and Helen,
fantastic post as usual. The two of you have a great flow, and Margaret I too laugh everytime the word asshat is used in a witty way. Urban dictionary defines Asshat as One who has their head up their ass. Thus wearing their ass as a hat. Even funnier- Asshatery- Acts committed by an asshat or asshats. 2. Engagement in an activity normally reserved for asshats.
“I demand that all of you stop this asshattery at once!”

You can do it Margaret, won’t that grocer feel like a fool when you break out that one?

Oh my, what a bracing breath of fresh air! Thank you ladies for making the sun shine! I also liked that phrase “Ass Hat” and I loved the image of shoving a gas nozzle up someone’s butt. . . can we start with W?

One of the best posts yet—Helen, I think you are one of the best and funniest writers I’ve ever read! As soon as my husband gets back from his morning walk, he will read this post and laugh his head off.

Margaret, so nice to hear from you! I can’t relate to driving a big American car, but I sure can identify with stores moving everything around. My local WalMart just did it and I am SO MAD everytime I go in there. I have to walk about 10 miles just to find 3 items. You’re wise to point out how much these “little things” can add annoyance to our lives!

So is it Hannaford or Shaw’s you’re mad at Margaret? They’re both awful, Shaw’s with those STUPID cards they let you forget so you pay way more than you thought you were… and Hannaford with all the CRAP they plant in the aisles just to make it hard to get your cart by…

The other day they had FOUR damned fools from some radio station up back by the fish department trying to keep people from shopping! So I went and got my haddock from the local guy over on Forest Ave.

I think they make shopping as difficult as possible so you’ll be there longer and spot more stuff to buy, but I just get irritated and leave.

It isn’t just grocers in the U.S. who like to move stuff around in the supermarket. They do this in Japan ALL THE TIME! Today, for example, I needed some cheese to go with my salad, and so I went over to where the “expensive but real” cheeses are usually kept…only to find lots of stuff that was most certainly NOT cheese! Ended up having to tromp all over the gorram store just to find a $4.00 little 2 oz. bag of crumbled red cheddar. Luckily, I have learned how to express my displeasure in Japanese (which, I must say, does *not* happen often in customer service situations here). The grocery manager apologized profusely when I asked him why they’d moved the cheese and other useful dairy products halfway across the store! Seems his corporate office feels it’s necessary to move stuff around for better “flow” through the store. Well, they threw off *MY* flow, that’s for sure!

Helen,

I’m with you 100%. It is *criminal* the way the American populace is being held hostage to oil interests. Over here, I drive a small yet comfortable “kei” car, which has a smaller more fuel efficient engine. I constantly wonder why we don’t have more “micro”-car options in the States. I wish I could bring my little car with me. It’s zippy, runs great, and gets incredible gas mileage!

outragousart-
I’m actually a registered Independent who has yet to vote a straight ticket… even in this past election. I pay attention to both sides. I know that for this election, it was easy to go along with the Dems side, at least for me, because what the Republicans had put out were just way too damn scary for my taste. I like Obama. I also like Olympia Snowe of Maine. One’s a Democrat and the other’s a Republican. However, I find both to be level-headed. In fact. Sen. Snowe doesn’t always follow her party line when voting in the Senate. She supports her constituents and doesn’t really seem to be self-serving.
Others, who may not know one single thing about her might dislike her because she is a Republican without researching the woman. I know that anyone I have written for or against, even in my own blog, I’ve read about first.

So, again, there are a few of us out there. Perhaps more than you think. 😉

Is it just me, or is there anybody else out there thinking for themselves or just along party lines? Does anyone really believe either party is working for them? Does the idea of the Republicans wasting our money and future bother you more than the Democrats wasting our money? The “Big 3” are called the “Big 3” because they are supposed to be big boys. Let them go to Chapter 11, reorganize, and hopefully come back strong and healthy. The highly overpaid union workers can tighten their large belts a little and the rest of us can loosen ours a bit. As much as we have given them, it only seems fair. As far as the management goes, most of them should be fired for their dismal performance. This Red versus Blue thing seems to make people pick sides instead of think.

The bailout of both the banks and now the auto industry is pure f*nuttery. I refuse to point fingers at either Republicans or Democrats…hell, they are both so alike I think we should just call them Republicrats and start looking for a new second party. Every politician in office bears at least some of the blame. Bush has had some seriously screwed up policies but, then again, it was Clinton who started the deregulation of the banks that got us into this trouble. Until we, as a country, learn from our past, we seem doomed to repeat this financial debacle every 20 to 30 years.

You ladies are fabulous…keep on writing, keep on arguing, and we’ll keep reading.

BTW, I believe it is asshat…its sort of a more polite way of saying asshole.

Global and local. You two remind me so much of my best friend and I. Sadly she succumbed to breast cancer five years ago, but I hear echoes of who we were in who you are.

I understand how safe you feel in your big ol’ Towncar, Margaret, and I hope it keeps you safe for a long, long time. And it does completely reek of mouldy onions how stores are being rearranged on a regular basis, but infmom is right, it’s designed to get you to spend more. Pound on that Manager’s toes until he listens to you, though. Customers have rights too!

Helen, I am equally tired of Palin and appalled by the profits big oil makes — and BRAGS about! But until they start seriously losing money, they’re not going to change.

Unless they are forced to, and with a new administration, one that isn’t completely tied to them, that is possible. Fingers crossed!

I love this blog and am trying to share it with as many people as I can. Think Globally, Act Locally.

And if we all went to the smaller fuel efficient cars then safety would be much less of a concern. If you did not have to worry that some schmuck in a big stupid SUV was going just drive over you people might be more willing. But then again we also have to figure out how to make them “cool” and “sexy” enough for people to buy into the idea. Like the “Govinator” has to decide he wants that instead of a HUMMER. But until I get my dream world I guess we are stuck.

And I agree that stores moving crap around is beyond annoying. It isn’t so bad for me, but if I want to send my husband to the store, oh man. Because if I have told him where to look for something and then it isn’t there…..well you can imagine. Good luck with your battle Margaret

What is funny is that if they were really going to make the oil companies bail out the auto industries the republicans would further scream out socialism! (because its obvious that they don’t really know what it means in the literal sense of the word) In theory its a brilliant idea…. Its just not possible with the money hungry greedy oil companies and the corrupt capitalist pigs out there.

However government bailout doesn’t sound that much better…

I find it funny how Bush is against the auto bailout but yet for the Fannie and Freddie bailout. The first bailout 700b, this bailout has yet to be determined but the highest amount I have heard on the news thus far is 25M or b. (could have changed since the last time I saw the news… I dont know) I also heard that it could come out of the 700B that went to the banks. Either way from the sounds of it IF they ever agree in a plan Bush will veto it and nothing will get passed by the time Congress recesses and nothing will get passed by the time Bush leaves and Obama takes over on Jan 20.
It just slayed me listening to Bush (which listening to Bush usually makes me want to drink absorbent amounts of alcohol just to tolerate it) and him saying that this economic crisis was not a failure of the free market system…… Ok Mr President! If it wasn’t a failure of the free market system what was it? Was it a failure of my right 6th toe? (noting the fact that like most humans I only have 5 toes on each foot)
Grocery stores make me mad most times…. I only grocery shop about 2x a month and I can never find the same things each time I go. I still do not know where the heck they put my tortillas that I always faithfully bought every time I went there!
Helen and Margaret! its been great!…. Heres my suggestion for the both of you… As well as your fabulous blogs you should have your web-savy grandson record a conversation between you two and put it online as a podcast or mp3 file or something like that. It would be very entertaining for all of us!

I understand exactly where your anger is coming from. It really is as simple as the oil companies bailing out the auto industry.
But I sense there is something dirty going down under the table. Everyone is suggesting that the oil company be the ones to bail out the auto industry, heck, even Ashton Kutcher suggested it on the Bill Maher show. But the guys up in the office aren’t bringing it up..obviously they know something should be done. But they refuse……why?

Helen, that is a really great idea. Has the government not been subsidizing the oil companies? What a bunch of frauds.

Margaret, I agree with you on the items being transferred all the time. I go to Costco and sometimes I just run in to pick up a couple of items and bamm! the item has been moved again. All the time they do it so that you would have to walk the store. Do you know how big these stores are? It is pretty inconsiderate.

You two kill me, although, I’m so much more like Helen. I have no problem using bad words, especially where Republicans and, in particular, Sarah Palin is concerned. And, sorry, Margaret, but small, fuel-efficient cars are the wave of the future. If we humans are going to help save the planet, that Town Car of yours has simply got to go!

But, I do love the big picture vs. little picture (Helen vs. Margaret) insights you bring to the table. It helps all of us see how the big effects the little. And, Margaret, I’m with you. It pisses the hell out of me when those asshats move the milk and bread around.

What a brilliant idea to have the oil companies bail out the auto industry. Maybe we should start writing letters to our….no that wouldn’t help. And the grocery store business..what a mess. Keep up the good work.

OMG, (Oh My God) I LOVE you ladies, you remind me of my Grandmothers, who were very good friends but had differences of opinions. They each had their own way of sharing those opinions too.
Keep up the good work and we’ll keep coming back for more!

Margaret, it is so great to see your thoughts as well! You are just as funny as your counterpart. I agree with you completely about grocery stores changing things around. It is so frustrating. You finally figure out where they’ve moved things to and then they change it around again and you have to start over.

In the case of the auto-makers’ bailout, it’s a relief to have a national issue that is so straightforward: American cars tend to break down and fall apart therefore people have stopped buying them. If GM and Ford don’t want to go out of business, they should start making decent cars. To bail them out would be to reward their terrible manufacturing standards.

Helen, I thought I had a good idea about that bailout (the money can only be used for retooling for fuel efficient vehicles, and all advertising for SUVs and monster trucks must cease forever immediately) but I must say, having the oil companies hand over the money is a stroke of pure genius. Bravo!

Margaret, I am with you! Both of the grocery stores I’ve shopped at for years remodeled and I can’t find anything. I spend more time wandering around looking for signs to point me to the stuff I used to be able to walk right in and get, than I do actually getting the stuff. Now, in my years of working retail this was explained to me as a good thing. Make the customers walk around more and they’ll spot more stuff for impulse buys. I thought it was a bad idea then and I still think so today!

I have a very dear life long friend. We are more like sisters in fact. Just listening to the two of you, I can just imagine the two of us going at each other 30 years from now and loving every minute of it. In fact we do a pretty good job of it right now, but we always walk away without being angry. You two are blessed to have each other.

While I agree the oil companies should bail out the automakers, I think that might just result in more of the same. I think we should bail them out, but with strict goals, such as increasing gas mileage and reduction of carbon footprint. Let the oil companies build us the mass transit we are all going to need when we can no longer afford cars. It was the automakers that bought up a lot of transit companies in the 40’s and 50’s and destroyed them. Otherwise, we would still have that infrastructure.

Margaret, it seems to be a new marketing thing to move the merchandise around. REI used to do it twice a year. A lot of people must have bitched, because they stopped doing it.

O, You are both just so dear! One to take care of the grocery store and one to take care of the world…just priceless! Can I, for just a second here, address the grocery store because you are BOTH talking about the same thing: Did you know that grocery store managers DELIBERATELY move the stuff around every week or so, just to make you walk around the store more and maybe you”ll pick up an impulse item (or 3) on your way by??? Now if that isn’t the stinkiest thing imaginable (except for those gas-guzzling cars)…here they are sneaking around the store during the night moving this and that around so that old ladies, the disabled, children, working people in a rush, and the blind have to go staggering around looking for their popcorn next to the milk! Kind of reminds me of the same kind of manipulation going on from GM, Banks, Wall Street, Mortgage Lenders, Oil Companies, Realtors (trademark remember!), and other unsavory Business Interests! Yep, Helen (and welcome Margaret!), it sure all smells the same to me! The fact of the matter is: You’re both right…town (car) and country (wagon)! Thanks…it isn’t smelling too much better around here, but I’m hoping that once President Obama gets to throwing open some doors that a fresh breeze will be blowing all across America. Sweet apples & blooming roses! God bless you both!

A while back someone wrote accusing you two of impersonating told old battle axes, and said he hoped you’d default on your student loans. I must admit that reading this post of Nov 16 I wonder myself. The fun is believing the image is real, but I don’t enjoy being made the fool.

Perhaps you would address this accusation in a post, though I’m of a mixed mind on it.

I too am so pissed off at things that I can hardly see straight. And I don’t see an end in sight and it can be very depressing. So, I’m totally with you Helen. I feel your pain. However, reading Margaret’s comments about the grocery store was kind of like a breath of fresh air. I need to pay more attention to the things that matter to me locally ~ the day to day life. It can sometimes get hidden in the frustration and anger, as it has been with me. So, thank you for both perspectives. They came at a good time.
Best regards to both of you and keep up the blogging.

Let me start off by saying that a friend linked me this site a couple of weeks ago. And after reading the latest blog (two weeks ago), I immediately added the link to my favorites. It has become a daily routine for me to check your blog, and I thank you for your wise words.

As for the oil companies bailing out the big three American car companies, I agree. In fact, I heard Ashton Kutcher mention something similar on Real Time with Bill Maher last week.

Anyway, I just wanted to thank you (Helen and Margaret – with the help of Matthew) for your insightful comments about our wonderfully flawed world.

I agree, Margaret. There is a special place in hell for the fool who keeps moving stuff around at the grocery store. For example: why is the microwave popcorn now on a shelf above the lettuce? And the bread on the other side of the store from the peanut butter? Arghh!

So glad to have you both posting! And Margaret, I’m not very good at cussing either but still get my point across. We need all of us, don’t we! This is going to be fun — don’t quit on us either of you. You’re my smile in the day.

I have to say Helen, I had precisely the same thought. Why can’t the oil companies with their excessive profits bail out the auto industry.

It makes me really wonder why no one with the ability to make this happen, hasn’t done something about this.

Ok, then my next thought was, technically speaking the auto industry has pretty much guaranteed the oil companies profits by not really, earnestly developing automobiles that use alternative sources of energy.

Why hasn’t someone at one of the big oil companies thought of this? They’ve got all that money lying around and the auto industry is what drives them (pardon the pun.)

Greetings from Canada! Just wanted to let you know how much I enjoy reading your blogs (a guilty pleasure of mine). I have your website down as own of my favorites, and check it everyday. Thank you so much!